Do the Riyadh talks hold promise for a way out of the quagmire? Or is Vladimir Putin stringing everyone along?
That’s not to say that his attempts at a ceasefire have produced no tangible results. Talks underway among the US, Russia, and Ukraine in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, are the most direct attempts to end the fighting since the war began. A few weeks of diplomacy yielded two significant if uncertain agreements — but the gap between the combatants remains wide.
A recent agreement to halt offensive attacks in the Black Sea seemed an important step — but then Russia threw in demands for sanction relief that threatened to scuttle the limited truce.
Do the Riyadh talks hold promise for a way out of the quagmire? Or is Russian leader Vladimir Putin stringing everyone along?
Not really.
Officially, Russia will not talk to a Ukrainian government it views as illegitimate. Ukraine, meanwhile, demands that Russia vacate the territory it occupies as a precondition for direct talks.
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